♥ Midwestern Beauty Bloggers Giveaway! ♥

Hi guys!  Hope you all like giveaways, because I have one for you today - a blogger giveaway!  Some of us ladies in the Facebook group, Midwestern Beauty Bloggers, wanted to put something together as a group for our readers.  We came up with this fun giveaway featuring 6 prizes - one from each blogger!

The 5 other blogs participating in this giveaway are:

♡ Confessions of a Sarcastic Mom ♡ The Girlie Tomboy ♡ Plastered Polish ♡ Darling Nails 

♡ Ruby's Nails ♡ Lipgloss Break

Here are our prizes below!

Are you excited?  Here's how to enter.  Use the Rafflecopter widget below to get started.  The only mandatory entry is your email address to contact the winner.  You can earn additional entries after you enter your email address. :)

Some rules - important! One entry per person.  Duplicate entries will be deleted.  Winner must provide a shipping address (no PO Boxes, please), so that your winnings can be mailed to you.  We will contact the winners and he/she must reply to the e-mail within 48 hours or we will draw another winner.  Entries will be accepted until 12 a.m. on October 10, 2013.  US only.

OH, also if you're in the midwest (US) and want to join this group, please do!  We're all welcoming over here. :)

Alright, enough blabber.  Go out and win some nail treasure!  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

OPI DS Raw Granite Series Review + Swatches

Press Sample

Hey all!  Today I have the new OPI DS Raw Granite shades to share with you.  According to OPI, these granite-inspired hues feature a "matte textured finish with mineral-like reflections."  While these do dry matte, they are not the same as liquid sands.  They don't contain any of the grainy "sand" textures.  Instead they dry down like a regular matte glitter polish.

OPI DS Pewter, 2 coats: matte pewter gray packed with very fine and small silver glitter.  Above you can see how it looks on its own and with top coat.  Personally I like it with top coat, because it brings out all the glitters.  But when it's matte, it definitely has a much softer feel.  This is one of those shades that I'll probably wear differently depending on my mood.  In terms of dupes, it does feel very similar to OPI Metallic 4 Life (Nicki Minaj), which I actually prefer.  Again, it's really up to preference. ^^

no top coat

top coat

OPI DS Lapis, 1 coat: matte denim-blue with very fine silver glitter.  This is so pigmented, it really only needs one coat!  It's also my favorite of two, both matte and with top coat.  But I have to say that it's super gorgeous with top coat!  This one reminded me of China Glaze Skyscraper (Fall 2011), but it's much more blue while Skyscraper leans a bit more purple.

no top coat

top coat

Verdict:  They're both perfect for fall since they're darker colors, but they still lend some softness due to the matte finish and silver glitter.  Both shades had excellent formulas that covered in 1-2 coats.  If it wasn't clear in my review, my personal favorite is OPI DS Lapis.

Availability: OPI DS Pewter and DS Lapis are now available at professional salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com for $12.50 ($14.95 CAN) suggested retail for each nail lacquer.


What do you think?  Do you like these matte or with top coat? :)

Liz

Neon Fun with BPS Studs!

Press Sample Affiliate Link

Hi guys!  Today I have two nail art looks featuring neon studs from Born Pretty Store.  I think one was a fail, but I'm happy with how the other one turned out.  Let's start with the fail...lol. :P

For this look, I used Color Club Wicker Park as my main base color and OPI DS Pewter for my accent color.  Then I stamped on the word collages on my pointer and middle nail in grey and silver respectively.  Unfortunately, that did not show up at all, especially on the middle nail. -.- I also tried to do something artsy with silver holographic foil, which just looks silver here due to the light box.  I think it was kind of okay at this point, but then I decided to add the purple studs... And then I didn't like it.  LOL!  Oh well, so of course I had to try again with the studs.

This time I went for a very simplistic, clean look.  Best part is, no skills were involved!  So if you're new to nail art, this is a good way to jazz up your nails.  For my base, I used Zoya Sailor.  Then I simply added these 2mm round purple studs* and 4mm square pink studs*.  Wouldn't this be a nice transitional mani into fall?  Especially for those of you still trying to hang on to summer. :3  Me?  I love fall. ^__^

If you're wondering about the quality of these studs, I found that none of them bled with top coat - which is a big plus.  They're also pretty flat, so they'll definitely stay on your nails until you're ready to take them off.  Usually with studs, people ask me if they're reusable.  For these, I'm going to say no.  You may be able to reuse them if you use them lightly or with a light base color - where clean up will be gentle.  However, if you try to soak these in acetone, the color will chip off.  I saw this happen with the pink studs, but the purple ones handled acetone better.

Overall, I'm super in love with these studs.  BPS has a lot more colors in both neon and pastel shades.  I think it'd be really cute to use a bunch of different colors for a colorful mani. :D  If you plan on getting any of these studs, be sure to use this code to receive 10% off your order: F10X31.

Are you a fan of colorful studs?  Let me know in the comments! :]

PS>> I'm now on Instagram, so come say hi!  It's lonely over there!  You can follow me too. x)

Liz

Color Club Girl About Town: Wicker Park + Pearl District Duo Review

Press Sample

Hi guys!  Today I have two of the color from Color Club Fall 2013 collection: Girl About Town. :)

Wicker Park, 3 coats: warm lavender creme. It's much warmer and more pink than the Color Club website shows, so I wouldn't say it's a pure lavender.  The formula was excellent and applied flawlessly.  The consistency of the polish was good as well.  It's a lovely color, but does tend to make my fingers look darker.  This reminds me of Bondi Botanical Beauty, but they're not at all alike.  Wicker Park is darker and more purple in comparison.

Pearl District, 2 coats: gold-olive metallic.  It's has very strong gold tones in it, but the olive in it is still apparent as well.  This applied in two easy coats and was surprisingly pigmented.  Perfect for fall!

Verdict:  Both polishes played well and were opaque in 2-3 coats.  My favorite out of the two is Pearl District.

Availability:  You can purchase this particular duo at shopcolorclub.com (here) for $12.  You can also buy all of the Girl About Town colors (here) for $8 each.

See any favorites?  Let me know in the comments! :)

Liz

OPI San Francisco Collection Review + Swatches (Fall 2013)

Press Sample

Whee~ I feel like we're actually getting into fall now, which makes me happy since it's my favorite season.  Today I have the fall collection from OPI, so let's get started - there's a lot!

Pretty Jelly: The Fall Collection

Representing various "falls", this collection features polishes with both linear holographic and glitter finishes.

Rabbit Hole: brown-purple base with red-violet shimmer that turns gold at extreme angles, large copper glitter, small copper-gold glitter, and sparse holographic glitter. This color is as magical as Alice's famous fall down the rabbit hole.

lightbox

 

London Bridge: grey creme-jelly base with large gold holo glitter and small and medium gold glitter. Filled with gold shimmer and sparse blue sparkles, this color is based off a children's singing game.

 

Mexico City: bright red linear holographic polish. This color was inspired by one of my favorite books by Albert Camus. It takes its name from a bar located in the "last circle of hell" - Amsterdam's red light district.

 

House of Usher: violet linear holographic polish. This brooding purple pays homage to one of Edgar Allen Poe's chilling short stories.

Poison Envy: dark green linear holo. Representing the fall of man, this lush green holo is as tempting on the nail as it is in the bottle.

Availability: You can find all of these colors in my Etsy shop: Pretty Jelly.  Pretty Jelly polishes can also be found internationally at the following shops: MeiMei's Signatures and Edgy Polish.

For more info about Pretty Jelly, please visit: http://www.prettyjelly.com / like on Facebook / follow on Twitter. :)

Interview with Les essais beauté de Schette!

Hey guys! Hope you're all enjoying your weekend!  I just wanted to drop in and let you know about the interview I did with Schette from Les essais beauté de Schette - a french beauty blog!  The interview was for my indie polish brand, Pretty Jelly.  I had a lot of fun answering all the questions, so I hope you'll drop by Schette's blog and check it out. :)

The first part is in the french, but if you scroll down, you can read the interview in English as well.  She also reviewed all 5 polishes from my Goddess collection, so if you have time, take a look at those too. :D

I'll be back soon with swatches of my new fall 2013 Pretty Jelly collection: The Fall!

Much love!
♥ Liz